“Yes, yes. Just stay down and hang on.”
“They’re still back there, but I put some good space between us,” Jason said, in his serious-calm voice. “Listencarefully. When I stop the car, jump out and run up the steps. Don’t stop until you get to the top.”
“What? What steps?” she asked.
“You’ll see it. It’s the only building out here.”
Leland’s voice traveled from the backseat. “Trust him, Tayla.”
Three breaths later, the SUV skidded to a stop.
He unbuckled her seatbelt before she reached it. “Now! Run!”
Not having any idea where she was going, she flung open her door and looked up. Twenty yards ahead, a three-story tower-like structure jutted out from the dense, tropical foliage. She took off.
Just inside the tower doorway, she saw nothing more than a metal staircase commanding her upward. Adrenaline pushed her up the steps faster than she thought possible. When she reached the second story, she was surprised Jason hadn’t passed her. She was sure his long legs could take the steps two at a time faster than her adrenaline-fueled sprint. But what about Leland? She paused, then heard both men bolting up the metal steps. She raced up the last flight and stumbled into a fifteen by fifteen footroom. The space was bare, apart from a few folding chairs. Centered on each wall was a large, open-air window.
Jason and Leland rushed in behind her and shut the door. And she realized what took them so long. They each carried a black bag, apparently ones Jason had stashed in the SUV. Jason’s bag was much longer than Leland’s.
“Stay low, up against the wall, away from the windows,” Jason said. He pulled a sniper rifle from his bag.
She heard a car approach. The driver stopped and cut the engine. Tayla couldn’t see outside. All she could do was watch Jason’s back as he looked out a window through the rifle’s scope. Leland stood next to her.
“You getting a good view?” Leland asked.
Jason seemed to follow their movements with the scope. “Yep,” was his only answer.
Remembering the ringing in her head from this morning, she whispered, “Should I cover my ears?”
Still watching through the scope, he repeated, “Yep.”
She stuck her fingers in her ears. Not a moment too soon.
He fired one shot, thenanother and another.
A moment later, she thought she heard the car start its engine. Jason lowered the rifle, and she took her fingers out of her ears.
“They’re leaving.” He turned to Tayla. “How are you holding up?”
“Did . . . did you shoot one of them?”
The corner of his mouth crept up. “If I was aiming for them, I would have hit them. I just made them dance around a bit.” He looked at Leland. “And the fact that I scared them off with three shots in the dirt shows you what kind of goons we’re dealing with. They didn’t fire back, just took off.”
Jason and Leland did their silent communicating thing again. At that moment, Tayla didn’t want to know what the looks meant.
She tried to coax her heart rate back into the double digits while Jason returned the rifle to its case. “Where are we? And how did you know this place was here?”
His subtle smile barely reached his eyes. He didn’t seem to mind her questions. “We have lots of satellite imagery of Isadora Island. I studied it on the flight here.”
“Seriously? And you just remembered there was a . . . what is this place?”
“A wildlife observatory. I probably scared off the monkeys and birds with my shots.” He shifted his focus to the scene outside the nearest window. “But I bet this area is buzzing with life when humans aren’t making a racket. It’s gorgeous out here.”
She hadn’t taken time to notice—because her life was in danger. But now, she followed his gaze out the window to the raw beauty of the island’s jungle. The tallest palms she’d ever seen mingled with large-leaf plants and trees of every shade of green. Splashes of red, orange, yellow, and purple dotted the leafy landscape—courtesy of flowering plants and vines. For the first time since standing on the ferry this morning, she was really seeing Isadora—and appreciating her beauty.
“Okay, kids,” Leland said. “We need to get going.”
“Yes,Dad,“ Jason said. “Just admiring the view for a second. We’re in an island paradise, remember?”
